2-day intra-Kashmir women’s conference begins in Muzaffarabad

TARIQ NAQASH

Muzaffarabad, Nov 6: A two-day intra-Kashmir cross LoC women’s dialogue commenced here on Tuesday. The conference is being held under the aegis of 'AJK Women for Peace Organisation' (AJKWPO) and the initiative is sponsored by a German organisation, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF). The ten-member delegation of women from Jammu and Kashmir arrived here on Monday through a crossing point along the Line of Control (LoC). The PaK administration had specially allowed 14 members of AJKWPO to receive the guests at the crossing point, instead of the bus terminal located some 800 metres before the bridge. As the delegation members, who represented Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Ladakh regions, walked into the Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK) territory through the famous Kaman Bridge at about 2:30 pm amid light drizzle, they were enthusiastically greeted by their hosts with hugs, garlands and flower petals showering. Kaman Bridge, it may be mentioned here, is located some 60 kilometres south of Muzaffarabad and marks the crossing point between Chakothi and Uri sectors of PaK and Jammu and Kashmir, respectively. The crossing point was opened for divided Kashmiri families in 2005 as part of the ‘confidence building measures’ between the nuclear armed South Asian neighbours, India and Pakistan. From the bridge, they were brought to the building of magnificently built girls inter college in Chakothi where young schoolchildren sung them welcoming songs. The delegation includes Prof Dr Nusrat Andrabi, Nighat Shafi Pandit, Prof Tazdin Joldan, Qurrat-ul-Ain, Prof Dr Effat Yasmeen, Dr Ravinderjit Kour, Prof Dr Rekha Chowdhary, Prof Yasmin Ashai, Prof Ellora Puri and Ayesha Salim. Separately, Sushobha Barve, Aditi Bhaduri and Kalpana Subramania Sharma of the New Delhi based Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation (CDR) also arrived here on Monday to attend the conference. Being Indian nationals, they had travelled through the international border between India and Pakistan, the other day. On Monday evening, registration of around 70 participants was done at the venue of the conference, a 5-star hotel here, followed by an introductory session, chaired by eminent Kashmiri writer Begum Surraya Khurshid, who is widow of former PaK president K H Khurshid. Rukhsana Muhammad, an active member of AJKWPO, told Greater Kashmir that the conference would hear the women’s narratives on Kashmir, with reference to their experience in the conflict and the role they could play in peace building. “It is aimed at building bridges and bringing women’s voice into peace building in Kashmir,” she said. In September last year, a 16-member delegation from PaK and Gilgit-Baltistan had travelled to Srinagar to attend a 2-day intra-Kashmir women’s conference on women's role in society, under the aegis of CDR in collaboration with the Srinagar-based Women for Peace (WFP). The delegation will return on November 12.

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TARIQ NAQASH

Muzaffarabad, Nov 6: A two-day intra-Kashmir cross LoC women’s dialogue commenced here on Tuesday. The conference is being held under the aegis of 'AJK Women for Peace Organisation' (AJKWPO) and the More

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